Brand Bangalore becoming thanda

Brand Bangalore becoming thanda
Reason: Cost Of Living,Traffic Jams Result: Techies Opt For Other Cities
The Times of India

Bangalore: Has Brand Bangalore suffered a dent because of some key factors that make daily life hard in the city? If the receding job pull is any indication, here’s a sample. Out of an estimated 1,27,000 IT/ITES candidates who were offered jobs in the last 18 months by over 50 city companies, nearly 30% opted for postings in Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai and Delhi, say recruiters.

Reason: High rentals, high cost of living, unending traffic snarls, lack of mass conveyance, poor quality of life and a growingly unfriendly weather. “All these make life extremely tough in Bangalore. Things were far better five years ago,’’ lamented Madhav Charan Singhania, a Bangalore techie who is relocating to Pune.

The city seems to have failed to keep up its promises. “Brand Bangalore has visibly taken a backseat. Also, the recent clampdown on social life and other restrictions may injure the brand further,” said a city-based brand consultant, Harish Bijoor.

Traditionally, quality, availability and cost of food were the key factors that determined the cost of living of a city. Today, the “food factor’’ is being replaced by quality, sophistication and comfort of accommodation and living environment, said R.S. Deshpande, professor of agro-economics, Institute for Social and Economic Change.

The tech community’s increased exposure to developed world could be the immediate reason for this change, said Deshpande. “Today, a large number of people believe that they can get a better life outside Bangalore,’’ he added.

Another reason for Bangalore becoming “thanda’’, according to Gautham Sinha, CEO of an HR consulting firm, is that many other cities have intensified their pull over Bangalore to attract quality talent.

The country’s IT landscape has seen a sea change in the last 18 months with Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune “gaining critical IT mass’’, Sinha said. Chennai has around 1,00,000 IT workers while Hyderbad has around 80,000. Pune’s tech strength is 50,000 plus, while Noida, Gurgaon and Delhi (NCR) throw up another 20,000.

The critical mass the city gained ensured that every techie had to pass through its streets for an elevation in his career profile — whether to jump abroad or to work in cutting edge technology. “May be certain people are willing to look beyond Bangalore. But who can completely ignore the IT pull of the city, that is currently on re-consolidation mode,’’ asked CEO of another HR firm B.S. Murthy.